It’s often the difference between success and failure, or ‘yes please’ and ‘no thanks’ – naming a product, naming a project, naming a team, naming whatever. Giving something a name which is compelling, inviting, something that people either want, want to aim for or find interesting.

Advertisers and marketing specialists are constantly looking for, and listening for, words that compel, persuade, attract and interest us.  You only have to think about how ads draw us in, give us the ‘why’ and the ‘what’s in it for us’ as they persuade us to buy:

• Coca Cola – the real thing;
• Adidas – right here, right now;
• Levis – Freedom to move

Multi-billion pound industries thrive on finding exactly the words to motivate us into action.

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We’ve all been there, haven’t we? Either listening to or reading about someone telling you all the things they want, need, think, do. ‘Well, I went here and I said that and then I did this and then I said that.

Well, I mean, who do they think I am? I said ‘well, I want to introduce this now’ and I was adamant. So, I finally got what I wanted.’

Now as you read that back and notice that, in reality, whilst a fairly strident bit of dialogue, it’s entirely possible to hear that every day. Eleven times the word ‘I’ appears – and not once the word ‘we’, ‘you’, ‘us’, ‘our’.

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